NBA Rumors: Patty Mills, Jazz Agree to Contract After 2024 Summer Olympics

Veteran guard Patty Mills is set to return for a 16th NBA season after reportedly signing with the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Mills and the Jazz agreed to a one-year, $3.3 million deal that is fully guaranteed for the 2024-25 season.

In Utah, Mills will play under head coach Will Hardy, who was an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs from 2015 to 2021 while Mills was with the team.

At his best, Mills is a proven playoff performer who turned heads during the 2014 NBA Finals when he scored a combined 31 points in the last two games and helped the Spurs defeat LeBron James and the Miami Heat behind red-hot three-point shooting.

He has always been a dangerous shooter from the perimeter and can be a scoring spark with veteran experience.

However, Mills' NBA role has diminished significantly in recent years with his last productive season being in 2021-22 with the Brooklyn Nets when he averaged 11.4 points, 2.8 three-pointers made, 2.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game.

He averaged just 6.2 points per contest for Brooklyn the following season, and last season was his worst campaign since his rookie year with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2009-10, as he averaged just 4.0 points per game in 40 appearances split between the Atlanta Hawks and Heat.

While the 36-year-old veteran is likely best served as a locker-room leader who receives limited playing time at this point in his career, he showed this month at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris that he still has some juice left.

Representing Australia, Mills was second on the team in scoring with 16.5 points per game. He also showed off his shooting prowess, making 2.3 three-pointers per game and shooting an impressive 40.9 percent from beyond the arc.

In a 95-90 overtime loss to eventual bronze medalist Serbia in the quarterfinals, Mills led all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting.

Hardy will likely look for Mills to use his experience and history of success to help mentor some of Utah's younger players next season, especially when it comes to guards such as Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier and Johnny Juzang.